
Author 



Title 



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5nn|or (General Boberf C ScftiMtck 



i^tc^ rtt iUaaltiiii^tiiit, i>. 01., Ptuvch 23, 1890. 



unta hcl^ tJt his liouov 

at the C<5vitn& (Oj.tcx-a llloitsc, flaiitou. (Ohio, 3lpx*tl 25tlr, 

1890, 

un&ev the rtiisvi«-*t"S' "-^t the ®rtl*fiel^ (fTluh, 

of u'ijiclt he ntua an honovavi\ iixcmbcx-^ 



STItc foKomiiig panes contain a record of tt\e proceedings 
a I III at serai ce 
mhiclx mas participated in by ttie people of Saijton nit\o desired 
to l^onor tlic ineniory 
of lltetr most distinguished fellom citizen. 




Introductory cJcldresS by Ool. Q. CJ. rcirrot. 



Under the circuinstances it would not be expected, and 
perhaps would not be proper for nie to indulge in any 
remarks more than would be necessary to state the purpose 
of this meeting. We are not assemljled to-night my friends 
as once we met in this ver}- room, without distinction of 
party, to indulge in grief at the sudden taking off of the 
distinguished son of this state. President James A. Garfield. 
But we have come together to-night, first as the representa- 
tives of a political party, to acknowledge the able and long 
continued services of one who in his day was foremost 
among the leaders of that party, and then in a larger sense 
to honor the memory of our friend, our neighbor and our 
townsman, whose long life overrunning the Psalmist's 
mark, was a source of continual pride to us and was full of 
honor to himself. The book in which is written the glories 
of this republic has no page more illustrious than that 
which the State of Ohio has furnished. It glows with a 
fame that no lapse of time can dim. Her sons have served 
the nation in its Executive Department, in its representa- 
tion at Foreign Courts, in the Senate, in the House of 
Representatives, and at the head of its victorious armies, 
and they made Ohio a name of renown and honor, and 
to-night we may justl}- congratulate ourselves upon the 
large contributions which the Miami X^alley has made to 
this glorious roll of celebrated men. The occasion is sug- 
gestive of Thomas Corwin, and no name can justly be 
placed higher upon the list of distinguished men and no 
fame is richer than his. The intimate association in life of 



vSchenck and Corwiii ]:)lends the memory of these two, and 
the names are mutually suggestive, each of the other. 
One of these was the Golden Mouthed Orator of his day. 
Among the reminiscences of the older men of this valley, 
none are richer in interest than those which relate to 
Corwin on the stump and in the court room, where as in 
the Senate Chaml)er, crowded audiences hung entranced 
upon his eloquence. He moved men at his will, to laughter 
or tears. He stirred every passion at pleasure that en- 
nobles human nature. He was a great political master, 
and the life long friend of General Schenck. Differing so 
widely as they did in all mental characteristics, there is yet 
manv points of resemblance between the careers of these 
two men. Both won their highest honors in the political 
field. Both occupied various highly responsible positions 
in that field. Both acquitted themselves in the offices to 
which they were respectively appointed or elected, with 
great advantage to the countr}- and credit to themselves. 
General Schenck outlived his great and noble friend. He 
lived to see the day which Corwin only prophesied of. He 
lived to see the two opposing factions meet in armed col- 
lision. He lived to advance his political principles and 
prove his patriotism at the point of the sword, and to add 
to his distinguished re})Utation as a statesman, the dis- 
tinction of the courageous and skillful soldier. He made 
a name which we will cherish and perpetuate. One of the 
immortal names that were not born to die. 



Prayer by Rev. W. 0. Hale, d. d. 



Almighty and Everlasting Father, hear us to-night ; hear 
thou our prayer. We come to thee because thou hast heard 
us in other days and other years — in the years wherein we 
stood in darkness and turned to thee for light ; when love 
of country and love of our friends and kinsmen and love of 
life, impelled us to seek thine aid ; when only faith in thy 
word and in thy providence sustained us. Blessed be thy 
name in this place, in this nation, in all the earth, for thou 
hast delivered and we are glad. 

We can not know thy majesty and glory, thy dominion 
or the ineffable perfection of thy character, but we can 
know thy love and righteousness. We can see thy fatherly 
hand in the present and in the past, and know that the God 
of battles has been our great Captain in the warfare of lib- 
erty. We behold the justice and truth of thy word, and 
rejoice in thy government, and seek th}' glory. 

We ask thy blessing upon us as we are assembled to 
commemorate the excellency of character of th}' servant — 
the illustrious dead. We believe, as thou didst call Moses 
and Samuel and David and Jephthah, the great men of the 
long past, to lead thy people in progress and conquest, as 
thy power rested upon their swords, — so, too, upon the 
swords of our own great leaders, — thou didst bestow power 
to overcome ; that they were thy servants even as Cyrus 
was thy servant, and that we owe to thee, our Father, the 
glory and the power and the kingdom. Thy servant went 
forth in our behalf, but in thy name. We honor the man, 
but take the crown of immortal fame to tnine altars, O Lord 



of Hosts ! We thank thee for the ^•^ctory and the glory and 
the integrity of the union. O God ! we thank thee for the 
peace of this great, grand nation, for which so many gave 
up life. We stand to-night both in the light and shadows 
of the years of deadly strife, as when we came into our 
great churches and humble temples to plead with thee for 
the union, and we thank thee that there is no north or 
south, east or west, but one united, undivided, immortal 
people. Oh, bless our land, bless our })eople ! Bind their 
States to thine altars ; make all men thine own. Then our 
heroes shall not have suffered and died in vain. Bless. O 
God ! our vState, and accept, we beseech thee, our thanks 
for the honor thou didst bestow upon the scms of this our 
native state. When in peril we were in tears, but now in 
peace we shout thy praise, and in glad words proclaim our 
gratitude. It was in tin- way that the solution of our woe 
was found ; thou didst work by the hands of men. Leaders 
thou didst appoint, and we are grateful that it is in thy 
providence that these leaders were our neighbors and 
friends and brothers, and thus we are before thee. Bless 
these friends and neighbors of thy dead servant ; be gra- 
cious to his kinsmen, and deal kindly with those whom he 
loved and who were of his own blood ; the L,ord make 
known to them his grace and tender mercy. 

Are not all the names before thee that to mention move 
us to manly pride, and inspire our hearts to noble purposes 
for life and citizenship. Let thy spirit hover o\-er this land 
and keep us, O God ! 

Bless the President of these United .States, and direct thy 
servant, that he ma>- rule o\-er us in righteousness; that 
virtue, ])atriotism and ]n'osperit>' may increase, and thy 
name and thy law be acknowledged sui)remc : Uial thanks- 
giving for all th\- mercies, l<oth known and unknown, may 
ascend night and day l)efore thee. 

May our laws be copies of tli>- will, and our law-makers 
men after thine own heart. Bless the Go\-ernor of this 
State, and be thou his counsellor, his sun and his shield. 



Bless the widows and the orphans. Deal gracioush' with 
the wounded and the afflicted of that grand army of all 
America, whether victors or defeated. In mercy subdue 
all strife ; in love make all love, and in power bestow a 
Father's blessing upon our whole land and every one of 
the land ; and at last bring us into thy presence and we 
will then, as now, give th}- name the glory of things tem- 
poral and spiritual eternally in Christ. Amen. 



bETT&RS 0P f^EGRET. 



Cincinnati, O., April 24, 1890. 
H. A. Crandai.l, flsq., Dayton, O.: 

I very much regret my inability to accept your kind invitation to attend 
the meeting of the Garfield Club to honor the memory of Major General 
Schenck, a man that T always appreciated very highly, and whose name 
can not be too highly honored by the ]:>eople of this State or the Nation. 

Truly yours, 

RICHARD SMITH. 



Dayton, O., Ajnil 25, 1S90. 
Mv Dkar Sirs: — I received your kind invitation to attend the me- 
morial service in honor of the memory of Gen. Roliert C. Schenck. I 
regret that absence from the city will [irevent my attendance. Ohio had 
no abler son or more patriotic citi/cn. Citi/ens of Dayton feel an h(inest 
pride in his record, and should heartily join in the public acknow ledg- 
ment of his long and distinguished service. 

Very respectfully yours, 

JOHN A. McM.\HON. 



House of Rki'rksf.ntatives, U. S., 

W \siiiNi;i(iN, .\pril 22, 1890. 

Messrs. Crandall, Ramsey anh IIaikd, Committee: 

Genti.emkn : — Duties here, which im|)crativcly <icniand m\- attention, 
will prevent me from accepting your invitation to particijiate in the me- 
morial service in honor of Major General Schenck. N'ou iiave my most 
sincere wish for a successful occasion. (Icneral Schenck was one of the 
most distinguished and honored sons o[ Ohio, and honors paid to his 
memory are most worthily bestowed. 

^'ery truly yours, 

M. M. BOOTH MAN. 



Vice-President's Chamber, Washington, 

April 24, 1890. 

Gentlemen : — I regret my inability to accept your invitation, and to 
join his townsmen in doing honor to the memory of Major General Rob- 
ert C. Schenck. His brilliant services in Congress, in the field and as his 
country's representative at the Court of St. James, will long be held in 
grateful remembrance by his countrymen. 

With renewed regrets, believe me very faithfully yours. 

LEVI P. MORTON. 



The Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, 

Sandusky, O., April 21, 1890. 

H. A. Crandall, Chairman of Committee, Dayton : 

Dear Sir: — I readily accept the invitation to be present at the me- 
morial services to be held Friday evening next in memory of Gen. Robert 
C. Schenck, under the auspices of the Garfield Club. 

I shall not fail to unite, by presence at the ceremony, in testifying to 
the eminent services of General Schenck to the country in peace and in 
war, and the strong hold he had upon the affection and esteem of the 
people of Ohio. A'ery respectfully, 

M. F. FORCE. 



The Senate, Washington, April 22, 1890. 

Gentlemen : — I regret that my public duties here will prevent my 
acceptance of your kind invitation to participate in the memorial services 
upon the occasion of the death of Gen. Roliert C. Schenck, to be held by 
your club on the 25th inst. 

My long service in the House with General Schenck, and my pleasant 
intimacy with him since his retirement from public life, have awakened in 
me feelings not only of the highest respect and regard, but well-nigh the 
love of a brother. I have known him, in many trying relations in the 
public service, exhibiting such high qualities of self-abnegation and patri- 
otism, as well as commanding talent and broad statesmanship, that I have 
looked upon him as one of the great men of the country. Time will never 
diminish the regard in which he is held, or the fame which he acquired as 
a public debater and leader in the councils of the Nation. All who knew 
him here will, I am sure, join with you in testimony to his worth, whether 
they are able or not to be present on that interesting occasion. 

Yours very truly, 

H. L. DAWES. 



Senate Chamukk, Wasiiincton, April 23, iSgo. 
Gentlemen: — I regret tliat my duties and engagements make it im- 
possible for me to unite witli the (Jarlield Club t)f Dayton in the memo- 
rial service of the 25th in honor of the late (leneral Sclienck. 

Few men have so impressed a distinct and admirable personality upon 
their contemporaries. His knowledge, courage, wit, eloquence and in- 
tense patriotism as a jiublic man ; his kindly, unfailing humor, his gener- 
ous affection and his broad charity in ]irivate life, will be traditional 
among pulilic men, and cherislied memories among those nearer tn him. 

Sincerely yours, 

JOSEPH R. H.WVI.EV. 

LaivEUome, Mr. Vernon, ()., April 16, 1S90. 
Gentlemen: — The uncertainty in regard to my presence at the meet- 
ing in honor of Gen. Roljert C. Schenck, to lie held in Dayton on the 
25th inst., has just been removed by a telegram, which reijuires me to be 
in Washington next week and for an indefinite time. I regret deeply the 
necessity which prevents me from attending the ceremonies in honor of 
the deceased, with whom I ha\e lieen much associated for many years, 
and for whom 1 have always entertained a jirofound rcs|iecl and esteem 
His eminent abilities, long and useful ])ul)lic scr\ ices and his exalted 
character, will be rememliered and honored as long as the history of Ohio 
is preserved. Kespectlully, 

COLUMl'-US DKI.-WO. 



Dayton, O., April 23, 1S90. 
Gentlemen: — The invitation of your club, e\lcnde<l through you, to 
attend the memorial service in honor of Major ( leneral Robert ('. Schenck, 
has just been receivetl and is accepted. I thank you for the ojiportunity 
of mingling my tribute with yours to the memory of ( Icneral Schenck. 
Long before Gen. Schenck's deatli his name and fame had become the 
pride of his countrymen at large, as well as of his immediate friends, 
fellow-citizens and partisans. In Ohio particularly, and in the Miami 
Valley especially, where he was born and reared, this feeling of gratifica- 
tion and pride in the distinguished usefulness of his life and career was 
justified and intensified by the recollection that it was to a large degree 
the dcvelo|)ment and product of his daily business life and training in this 
community, and that his success as legislator, diplomat and soldier re- 
flected corresponding honor u])on it. In honoring his memory, therefore, 
we also honor ourselves. Respectfully, 

lOHX (;. DORKX. 



Senate Chamber, Washington, April 23, 1890. 
H. A. Crandall, Esq., Dayton, Ohio: 

My Dear Sir : — I have received your note inviting me to attend a 
memorial service on F'riday next in honor of the memory of/Ien. Robert 
C. Schenclc. If my public duties would allow I would consider it a great 
honor to pay this mark of respect to one of the greatest men Ohio has 
furnished to the service of the Lhiited States. I feel as (Jeneral Schenck 
would, if living, that I ought not to leave public duties assigned me, and 
I know that the citizens of Dayton of all parties will demonstrate the 
honor and respect in which his memory will be held by the people, not 
only of his own city, but of the State and the Nation. 

Very respectfully, 

JOHN SHERMAN. 



Con'MiiUS, O., April 24, 1S90. 

Gentlemen:—-! lieg to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation to 
attend a memorial service by the tJartield CIuli of Dayton in honor of the 
late Gen. Robert C. Schenck. I regret not to be aide to accept this 
thoughtful invitation, as I would willingly join in any manifestation of 
honor and esteem to the memory of General Schenck. He was a conspic- 
uous character for a long series of years in the civil and military history 
of our country, \\ inning for himself a name his friends can proudly honor 
and perpetuate. 

The writer stood by his sifle in one of the earliest engagements of the 
War of the Rebellion, and was a witness of liis splendid personal courage 
and exalted sense of duty. He cheerfully joins in any expressions of 
honor and esteem. Very respectfully, 

W. L. McMILLEN. 



Cincinnati, O., April 21, 1890. 

Gentlemen : — I am honored by the invitation of )()ur committee to 
be present at the memorial service of the Garfield Club of Dayton, Ohio, 
in memory of the late Gen. Robert C. Schenck, to be held in that city on 
the 25th inst. 

I regret exceedingly that a ])revious engagement renders it impossible 
for me to l)e present, as it is an occasion of special interest to me, not 
only by reason of my long and intimate accjuaintance with our departed 
friend, Init because I have ever regarded him as one of the most distin- 
guished citizens of our State, and a leader in the best sense of the word. 



10 



Through a long and active life in forum, field and court, Cicneral Schenck 
easily maintained an undisputed position in the very front rank of states- 
men, soldiers and diplomatists, and enjoyed the confidence of his fellow- 
countrymen in the fullest measure. His integrity was spotless, his life 
was blameless, his entire career was brilliant. A faithful friend, a chival- 
rous foe, lender and true in all domestic and social relations, he was a 
model of all manly and patriotic qualities, which we may safely commend 
to our children for their imitation. 

Again regretting my inability to be present with you, I am. 

Very truly yours, 

B. R. COWEN. 



Cadiz, O., April 7, 1890. 

(iKNi'i.KMKN : — Your letter of the 1st insl. is received, wherein you 
kindly invited me to address a meeting of the citizens of Dayton on the 
25th inst. in iionor of the late Gen. Robert C. Schenck. By reason of 
my intimate acquaintance with Cjeneral Schenck, my many years of service 
with him in Congress, my affection for him and my high appreciation of 
his talents and his great services to our common country, I would esteem 
it a special privilege to address the proposed meeting of his fellow-citizens 
of Dayton, designed to be a public tribuic to his memory. 

I deeply regret that illness during the jiasl minith has so imjiaired my 
strength that 1 am constrained to decline your kind invitation, and to deny 
myself the pleasure of iiarticiiiating willi vou and your people in the pro- 
posed '•public Iriiiute" to the mcmni)- of your "most ilhistrious cili/en," 
ihe patriot, statesman and scddier of the republic, (len. Robert C. Schenck. 
(jratefully and respectfully yours, 

JOHN A. BINGHAM. 

HorsK (IK Rki'Kkskn lAin Ks, V. S., 

\V AsiiiNcroN, D. C, April 30, 1S90. 

Df.ak Sirs: — ^'our invitation to the memorial services of the (lariield 
Club in memory of Gen. Rol)ert C. Schenck was received by me on the 
2<Slh of April, the delay being on account of my aliseiicc from ihc cil\', 
which accounts for my not acknowledging the reception of your kind 
in\itation. 

I regard (leneral Schenck as one of the ablest men Ohio ever ])roduced. 
My relations with him in Washington were of the most pleasant character. 
He was ever ready to advise, ever ready to imparl information, and it was 
a great enjoyment to me to have him recall his Congressional career dur- 
ing the first eight years of service, as well as his later Congressional service. 



11 



His memory was an encyclopedia of the stirring events of his time that 
have now passed into history. His word pictures of the characteristics of 
his compeers in the House, and his fund of anecdotes, were so interesting 
that I exceedingly regret that he did not write his autobiography. I shall 
ever recollect him for his bright intellect, his rugged independence and 
his unswerving integrity. He was the father of resumption, and the 
credit that justly belonged to him for that wise and beneficent measure 
was diverted to another distinguished son of Ohio. But his memory will 
ever be cherished by the citizens of the Miami Valley with the same pride 
and admiration that is accorded to the peerless orator who was his friend 
and preceptor. Very respectfully, 

E. S. WH.LIAMS. 



Dayton, O., April 24, 1890. 
H. A. Crandall, Esq., President Garfield Club; 

You will remember that my acceptance of your kind invitation lor 
Friday evening was conditioned on my being in the State at the time. 
What I feared has happened, and I must go to New York on the next 
train, and so can not join the people of Dayton in sliowing respect to the 
memory of their most distinguislied citizen — General Schenck. 

I first saw him at a great political meeting in 1840. Over the platform 
was a streamer, and upon it the words, "Honor to whom honor is due." 
Nearly half a century has passed since that meeting, and to whom is honor 
more richly due than to Robert C. Schenck .-* During this time 1 have 
chanced to know many of the great men of tlie repuldic, l)ut I think he 
was one of the ablest, bravest and greatest (if them all. 

Of all the men I have ever known he least needed the advice which 
Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Polonius : "To thine own self he 
true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then 
be false to any man." He was always true to himself, his friends and the 
right ; he imitated no one, followed nobody. Having decided what was 
right, he had the courage to speak and act out his convictions, regardless 
of party leaders and personal popularity. There was in his composition 
an utter absence of everything like hypocrisy or demagogism. He was 
therefore hardly a success as a mere politician. He was no "mixer," 
could not lie "everybody's friend," nor "all things to all men," and never 
learned the use of "Ijoodle." He fought for his party and its ))rinciples 
and measures, and was content to stand or fall with his party. Knowing 
his one ungratified amijition to be Senator, I wrote him when he was in 
England to come home and help us make the canvass for him. He per- 
emptorily declined, and in his letter said : "You know me so well as to 
be sure that even if I were upon the spot I would have nothing to do with 



12 



'setting up' the Legislature, or intriguing in an\- way, or liargaining for 
the position. There has been enough of tliat in more States than one, 
and if I ever reach the dignity from Ohio, it must come to me as an honor, 
and nol as the rcsiill of a contract ^ 

One of the things, for which he has never had ])ri)per credit, is his 
service in the estaldishnient and success of the National Soldiers' Homes. 
He had more to do than any other one man in framing and jiassing the 
act eslahlishing the homes, and to him the Central liranch is especially 
indel)le<l for the marlile column in the cemetery and the condemned can- 
non which ornament its grounds: and yet 1 have failed to learn that 
either the National or local management have taken any notice of his 
death. And although one of the foremost of our public men and the 
equal of any man in the government service, how comes it the metropoli- 
tan press has taken less space to speak of his death than would have been 
given to a ini/e-figliter or base ball player? While Minister to England, 
and after he had served on the Joint High Commission, which led up to 
the c;ene\'a Conference and paved the way for the amicable settlement of 
international diflicullies, Ceneral Schenck was one of the best known and 
most popular men in the United States, and was prominently named for 
President ; but a newspaper correspondent, for some imaginary aftront, 
started a slander which ran so fast that it would seem the truth has never 
yet overtaken it. Are not we Americans, in dealing with our public men, 
very much like the peo]ile of Najiles, who worshi]i their Saint Jjinuiii'y 
one day and pelt him with baked ajiples the next? 

It is es])ecially apprnpriate that the club which bears the honored 
name of ( larlield should have inaugurated these memorial exercises ; for 
of all the friends who stood close to Ceneral Schenck not one was more 
steadfast than James A. (larfield. 

Vours very truly, 

LEWIS B. tiUNCKEL. 



Tnhianai'oiis, 1m)., April 15, 1890. 

flKN I'l.KMi'.N : — ^'our kind invitation to attend the memorial services 
in honor nt my old fiiend. Robert C. Schenck. came duly to hand three 
days ago. I would be glad to be able to go. but fear that I can not do so. 

Those who knew Ceneral Schenck well were strongly atlached to him. 
He was nol only a remarkable, but a great man. Simide in manners, 
plain, direct, forcible, lacoiuc and com|irehensi\ e in speech, he was time 
and unswerving in |iiinciple, and devoted to his frientls and his country. 

It was my good fortune to serve with him in Congress, after the War 
of the Rebellion, when ipiestions of a momentous nature concerning 
finances and reconstruction arose. He look part in those great debates, 



13 



and was able to say more, in fewer words, to the purpose than any man 
in either House. In fact, his force was gigantic when he chose to use it. 
He should have remained in the House of Representatives as the great, 
leading, fearless, brnatl-niimled American statesman. When his own 
district ungratefully ejected him from his great position, his friends of all 
jiolitical parlies throughout the Nation were astounded. 

1 think he has had, in the history of this country, lew equals in de- 
bate. Without ornament, without digression, without a superfluous word, 
his speeches are models of terse, compact and cogent reasoning. 

To be ready to grajiple important subjects of legislation at once, and 
guide their direction, is the highest accomplishment of the greatest leg- 
islator, and jiresumes jirevious study, profound thought, powerful expres- 
sion and unfaltering courage. 

There has been no such arena for the debater, in all time, as the floor 
of the House of Congress, with an audience so trying to his temper, so 
reluctant to pay attention, so imjiatient of platitudes, so contemptuous of 
bomliast, and yet so willing to listen to earnest, pointed, clear, logical, 
a]it, courageous and pregnant argument; so anxious to witness a scpiare, 
stand-up, unflinching, intellectual fight ; so ready to insist upon fair play, 
and to recognize tlie victor. 

Here he was the match for any comer, any day, on any question — the 
foremost man on that floor, take him all in all. His old neighbors and. 
friends in Dayton honor themselves in honoring his memory. 

^'ours truly, 

JOHN CO BURN. 



IBIDE WITH r 



Sung by the Philharmonic Society. 



T need thy presence every ])assiny liour ; 
What lull lliy grace can foil the leni]Her's power 
Who like thvself my gnide and slay can he? 
Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with mel 

Not a brief glance I long, a passing word. 
But as thou dwellcst wilii thy disciples, Lord, 
Familiar, condescending, patient, free, 
Come, not to sojourn, but abide with me. 



Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide — i 

The darkness deepens — Lord with me abide ; i' 

When other heliiers fail and comforts flee, ' 

' 5 

Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me ! Il 



Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day; I 

Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away: i 

Change and decay in all around I see ; ' 
Oh, thou who changest not, abide with me! 



I. 



16 



chainiiaiiship, Garfield was substituted for him and he for 
Garfield, as chairman of the Committee of Ways and 
Means. Garfield, by the suffrage of the Nation, became 
its President ; vSchenck would have graced that position as 
ably. Garfield fell in the prime of manhood by the hand 
of an assassin, and was the second of our martyred Presi- 
dents. Schenck died calmly at four score years, in the 
bosom of his family, and surrounded by his friends, to all 
appearances his natural strength not having abated but a 
few moments before. Eut had the maintenance of the 
principles he advocated required it, rather than surrender 
them, he would have gone through the rack and torture 
and fire of the mart}^. 

General vSchenck was born within a few miles of your 
city, in the town of Franklin, of which his father, General 
William vSchenck, had been the founder, now ninety-five 
3-ears ago. 

The date of his birth, October 4, 1809, carries the mind 
back over a period of more than eight}' years between that 
birth and his death. And all these years are full of great 
achievements and grand growths of his vState and country. 
But the State then was not seven years old, and had a pop- 
ulation of only 200,000, while that of your beautiful city 
was but 383. The country was a comparative wilderness, 
with few^ roads, and those mere bridle paths ; no bridges to 
cross the muddy streams ; the farms, small patches of land 
cleared from the dense forest, barely sufficient to raise corn 
and a few vegetables for the family use ; dwellings, the 
rudest log huts of one or two rooms, often miles from 
neighbors. The times were troublous, too. The power 
and vindictiveness of the savages, who claimed proprietor- 
ship of the land, had not been broken, and thej' w^ere con- 
stantly alert to kill the inhabitants and steal or destro}- 
their property. The pioneer went to the cultivation of his 
field, to the visit to his neighbors, or to the place of wor- 
ship, with his trusted rifle at his side, and his powder horn 
and bullet pouch well filled. The whole Northwest was in 



0DDRESS BY H0N. JeSEPH 60X. 



We have met to-night to evidence by ovir presence and 
words regard for one who, for more than fifty years, was a 
leader among men ; whose character and talents you were 
proud to acknowledge and felt yourselves honored, in that 
he claimed this cit}^ as his home, and desired his remains 
to repose here in their last resting-place. 

Major General Robert C. Schenck was a man of whom 
any community. State or Nation might be proud. I know 
that no stranger can tell you anything of him which you 
do not already know. His life was an open book to you, 
known and read of all men. That history has also l)een 
written by one of your most respected citizens, and another 
able compeer of his at the bar for years has, in the name 
of the mem])ers of that profession, prepared an elaborate 
memorial of him to attest their high regard. But it was a 
grand life, and will bear repetition, until every American 
shall have learned it by heart. This meeting to-night is 
especially under the auspices of the Oarfield Club of Day- 
ton, Ohio, who desire to honor the memory of their distin- 
guished member and townsman. It is highly proper that 
men who have taken on themsehes the cherished name of 
Oarfield should honor that of vSchenck. The>- l)()th be- 
longed to the same i)()litical jxirly and State, and were in 
the foremost front as leaders: both soldiers and generals 
in the Union Arm\-, and members of the same Congress. 
When Oeneral Schenck was chairman of the Committee 
on Military Affairs, Cieneral Oarfield was chairman of the 
Committee of Ways and Means, the two most inii)ortant 
committees of that body ; and when vSchenck resigned that 



17 



consternation, for the great Indian chief, Tecuniseh, and 
his brother, the Prophet, had aroused to fury all the Indian 
tribes, formed alliances with them and the British, and, in 
formidable numbers, menaced every town and settlement, 
and defied the power of the government. Before young 
Schenck was three years old the conflict was raging. His 
infant ears first heard the steady tread of armed men, the 
roll of the drum and the shrill piercing fife, and his young 
eyes danced with delight as he saw the stars and stripes of 
his country borne past his home by the brave pioneer sol- 
diers of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, among whom was 
his own father, a distinguished general officer, and all under 
the leadership of the gallant General William Henry Har- 
rison, the hero of Tippecanoe, marching on to humble the 
pride and power of the British and Indians at Fort Wajme, 
Maumee, River Raisin and Thames, and with the aid of 
Perry and his brave seamen on the lakes, to crush forever 
their dominion on lake and land. 

Past that home of his infancy, after man}' severe conflicts 
and great loss of life, returned the remnant of that brave 
band, to renew their task of opening up the wilderness to 
all the blessings of religion, education and civilization. 

In this magnificent Miami Valley, with all these heroic 
surroundings, with the blood of heroes in his own veins, 
he grew up to manhood. He obtained a liberal education 
in Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, an institution created 
by the Legislature the year of his birth, and established on 
lands reserved by the general government for educational 
purposes, and from which has gone forth so many distin- 
guished sons of our own and neighboring vStates to fill all 
the positions of honor and trust of the country, even up to 
the Presidential chair, now occupied by one of its alumni. 

He studied the law with great diligence under the tuition 
of that distinguished lawyer, statesman and most eloquent 
man of his times, Thomas Corwin, and at the age of twen- 
ty-one, nearly sixty years ago, began the practice of his 
profession in your city, which he continued for thirty 



18 



years. For sixty years he claimed this as his home. He 
loved this valley and its people, and whosoever of them 
came to hin), whether in Brazil or Washington or London, 
bore a key which opened his home and his heart. 

What years of trial and triumph were these ! I gaze with 
intent enthusiasm at the successive steps which he trod on 
his upward career, as histor}- does and will for ages record. 

Look on the tablet which records the events of his life : 
Born at Franklin, Warren County, Ohio, October 4, 1S09; 
graduated at Miami University in 1827; tutor of French 
and Latin there until 1830; admitted to the Bar of Ohio in 
January, 1831 ; practiced law at Dayton for thirty years; 
member of the Ohio Legislature in 1.841 and 1842, from 
this county; elected from this district to the 28th, 29th, 
30th and 31st Congress, from 1843 to 1851 ; in 1851 he 
was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary to Brazil, and also accredited Envoy Extraordinary 
to the Republic of Uraguay, the Argentine Confederation 
and Paraguay, negotiating important treaties with them ; 
entered the Union Army in 1861 in the War of the Rebel- 
lion, and was appointed Brigadier General by President 
Lincoln ; promoted to be Major General for distinguished 
bravery at the second battle of Bull Run, August 30, 1862, 
in whicli action he was severely wounded while leading his 
men in the thickest of the fight, from which wound he was 
disabled for months, and never finally recovered; in De- 
cember, 1862, he was appointed commander of the Middle 
District of the United vStates, including the city of Balti- 
more, and while so acting was, by the people of this district, 
enil)racing the counties of Montgomery, Butler, Warren 
and Preble, elected to Congress, when he resigned his com- 
mission in the army. In Congress he was successively 
chairman of two of the most important committees of that 
body, and especially were they so at that time, when the 
war was still raging, — the Committee on Military Affairs 
and of Ways and Means, — committees which imposed enor- 
mous labor on the chairman, and which required the utmost 



19 



ability and statesmanship to meet. One is astonished, on 
mereh' glancing at the index of the Congressional Globe, 
to see the many reports, petitions, resolutions, answers to 
questions, arguments to sustain, replies to attacks, which 
kept the chairman almost continuall}' on the floor, when 
not engaged in meetings of the committee, with goyern- 
nient officers and men of all conditions and parties haying 
business with the military or ciyil department of the goy- 
ernment ; for the legislation for the maintenance of the 
war and all its supplies, as well as that necessary to support 
the whole goyernment, passed through those committees. 
All these inyolved a strain on the physical and intellectual 
abilities which few men were able to meet, but which were 
disposed of by General Schenck with a clearness and mas- 
terly statesmanship which has never been excelled on the 
floor of that House. It was a grand and wonderful exhi- 
bition of the power of man. He was elected to the 38th, 
39th, 40th and 41st Congress, and seryed there until 1871, 
when he was appointed Minister to England. He was also 
one of the members of the High Joint Commission to set- 
tle the disputes between England and the United States, 
growing out of the depredation of the rebel vessel Alabama 
on our vessels on the seas. That commission consisted of 
the following members from this countr}- : Hamilton Fish, 
Secretary of State ; General Robert C. Schenck ; Samuel 
Nelson, Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States; 
E. R. Hoar, late Attorney General of the United States, 
and George H. Williams, late Senator of the United 
States from Oregon. Certainh', an array of talented men, 
each of whom must have been proud of the other. An 
equal number of distinguished Englishmen represented 
that country. A successful settlement of the vexed matter 
was made. A new administration came into power, and 
General Schenck returned from England in 1875. Some 
time afterward he was appointed by the goyernment as 
editor of the United States Statutes at large, and at this 
he was engaged when, after a short illness of pneumo- 
nia, he died at Washington City, March 23, 1890. 



20 



Surely, here are badges of official distinction, covering a 
period of more than forty years, sufficient to fill the ambi- 
tion of any man. A simple statement of so long, import- 
ant and varied public service would form a most eloquent 
memorial, without laudatory adjectives. As Mr. Lincoln 
said in that memorial speech on the battle-field of (lettys- 
burgh, " The world will little note nor long rememl)er 
what we sa>' here, but it can never forget what the>' did 
here." 

To have been a prominent leader at the bar of this city 
and State, so renowned for its man}' able, eloquent and 
learned lawyers ; to have represented in the Congress of 
the Nation for nearly sixteen years, by eight popular elec- 
tions, one of the most intelligent and discriminating con- 
stituencies of the State ; to have been distinguished at the 
l^ar, in puljlic assemblies and Congress as one of the fullest 
equipped and most acute debaters and eloquent orators of 
a Nation whose most prolific production would seem to be 
orators ; to have stepped from civil life into the w'ild crash 
of war at the higliest crisis of his country's fortune, and 
with l^ravery unsurpassed and consummate skill, to have 
reached its highest honors ; and at the close, when victo- 
rious peace crowned the national banner, to have marched 
back as one of a million of soldiers, and with the plaudits 
of a grateful country, to resume the duties of a private 
citizen in the calm serenity of an unclouded peace ; to have 
been again sent by the old friends of his childhood and 
manhood to represent them in Congress for four successive 
sessions, and then by the Nation sent to represent it at the 
court of the most renowned Nation of the Old World, is 
certainly something l)eyond the usual lot which marks the 
life of man — even the most distinguished of men. 

It has been said that " some men are born great; some 
achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 
them," and luck and circumstances are often alleged to be 
the important factors in the elevation of men. Fortunate 
birth, circumstances, what is called luck, and sometimes 



21 



the favor of friends may thrust greatness upon a man, but 
neither luck, circumstances nor enthusiastic friends alone 
can long sustain one in high public positions who has not 
the strength, ability and integrity within himself to main- 
tain the position. 

The great mass of our people are so intelligent, there are 
so many of ability who are constantly pressing forward for 
leadership, that it is only superior staying qualities which 
keep one to the front for any considerable time ; and these 
qualities are being continually tested by critical, interested 
and often selfish and unscrupulous e3'es, to detect the least 
flaw through which to pierce the strong mail which pro- 
tects the victorious knight. 

Consider the many distinguished men who graced the 
country when Robert C. Schenck, at the age of thirty-one 
years, stepped into the arena as one of the champions of 
the Whig cause in the great campaign of 1840. Then was 
Daniel Webster in the height of his fame; his calm, majes- 
tic presence, great learning, wonderful powers of eloquence, 
the unapproachable expounder of the principles and con- 
stitution of the country, and whom men, as the only verdict 
on his ability, called "The Godlike." 

General Harrison, whose renown as the most siiccessful 
conqueror of the Indian tribes, and whose name was a 
household one in every cabin as the hero of Tippecanoe, 
drew to 3'our city to listen to that remarkable voice, soft 
and clear as an .5^olian harp, an hundred thousand freemen 
filling all your streets and private houses, and camping in 
3'our suburbs for days. 

Henry Clay, with his grand magnetic presence and clarion 
voice, which thrilled all who listened, as he delineated how 
the adoption of his great American system of protection to 
home industry would open up the forest, fill the land with 
cities and manufactories which would consume the produce 
of the farm, furnish him with all the implements for en- 
larged production, clothe him from the sheep and flax and 
cotton grown at home, and make the Nation independent 



22 



of all others, and powerful in peace and war. Tom Corwin, 
matchless in beauty of diction, strength of argument, keen 
and caustic wit, and humor which made laughter hold both 
her sides. 

And there were Brough and Crittenden, Allen, Metcalf, 
Todd, Chase, Ewing, Stansberry, Hamer and a host of 
others, who made the country resound with logic and argu- 
ment, fact, fancy, wit and sarcasm ; but with all these great 
names, vSchenck held a high place in the affection of the 
people, and no man for years, when he appeared in public 
assemblies, drew more interested listeners, who hung with 
thrilling pleasure on his words, whether fervid, patriotic 
appeals, bitter, sarcastic denunciation of what he believed 
wrong, or broad, humorous strokes, with which he was 
wont sometimes to bury an antagonist as under an ava- 
lanche. 

His ])osition in Congress from 1843 to 1851 was noted 
not only for his ability as an apt and eloquent parliamenta- 
rian, but also as a clear and comprehensive statesman, who 
labored not merely for the immediate constituents who voted 
for him, but regarded the whole Nation as a unit, to be so 
held, if need be, by the blood of every one who claimed 
its protecting gegis. To this principle he consecrated his 
life when, in 1861, as the hand of treason fired the first gun 
at Fort Sumter, he tendered his services to the government 
to maintain its integrity by war. When he was commis- 
sioned Brigadier General of \'olunteers In' President Lin- 
coln, there was no end of criticism by those who stood out 
of long range, and would advise the government how to 
carry on this war. It was claimed that he had neither the 
military education or al)ility of an orderly sergeant. Per- 
haps he had not. But long before the war closed, he and 
thousands of others, as inexperienced as he, taught us that 
the quiet, private American citizen, who had not, it may ])e, 
ever loaded or fired a gun, was an apt scholar, and had 
wonderful destructive powers in the line of war when his 
country's salvation depended on it. 



23 



One of his first essays as an officer was when detailed b}' 
his commander to take possession of the London & Hamp- 
shire Railroad as far as Vienna. With a train of cars, he 
proceeded to carry out his order, but was fired on by a 
masked battery, three cars disabled, ten men killed and 
others wounded. The engineer ran the engine back to 
Alexandria, leaving the General with a small band to resist 
a much larger force. But he maintained his position with 
so much vigor that the enemy withdrew. Much bitter 
criticism was vented on him, which subsequent experience 
proved to be unjust, but amid all he was sustained and 
praised for his conduct then by that grand commander 
and true American, General Winfield Scott. 

We had not learned then that every hillside in the South 
was fortified, and that masked batteries could be rapidlj^ 
mobilized so as to be available at any given point ; that 
they were hid away in the most peaceful landscape, and 
that every navigable inland water was prepared with deadly 
torpedoes to guard the heart of the Confederacy. McDow- 
ell, McClelland, Burnside, Thomas, Pope, Meade, vSherman, 
Grant, all learned this, as they bravely marched into the 
enemy's countr}-, and left under every turf over which the}- 
trod a soldier's sepulchre. 

From this time on for two years. General Schenck was 
in active, vigorous service all over the seat of war, in Vir- 
ginia and Maryland — in that first great struggle at Bull 
Run, where both sides learned that there was a war, and 
that war meant killing people. 

He was with Rosecrans on the Kanawha, New and Gauly 
rivers ; in command at Cumberland, Maryland ; then up 
the south branch of the Potomac, holding Moorfield, Peters- 
burg and Franklin ; pushing on through the mountains 
with 1,500 men a battalion of cavalry and DeBeck's Ohio 
Battery to the relief of Millroy, only to find himself con- 
fronted by 15,000 rebels, and then to successfully withdraw 
his forces to a place of safety. Then at the second battle 
of Bull Run, where in the thickest of the fight, when 



24 



urging his men forAvard, a rebel l)all shattered his right 
wrist, causing his sword to be thrown some distance from 
him, but peremptorily refusing to leave the field until he 
regained his sword. He was for a long time unfit for duty 
by the wound, but as soon as he was able, was i)ut in com- 
mand of the middle district, in the city of Baltimore. 
Here at the beginning of the war our troops had been fired 
into when passing through to the defense of the capital, 
and there was still a bitter feeling against marching Union 
soldiers over their soil. But that city lay between the great 
cities of the North and the capital of the Nation, and 
through it were to pass, day by day, immense numbers of 
soldiers and all the appliances of war to protect the Capitol 
and crush the rebellion south of it. It required sagacity, 
patience, bravery and eternal vigilance to keep that high- 
way open. General Schenck was equal to the task, and 
soon had absolute control over the rebel and turbulent 
element, which had theretofore proved so troul)lesome to 
the general government, and soon by day and by night at 
the home of its birth, "mid the rocket's red glare, bombs 
bursting in air "' could be heard the inspiring notes of " The 
Star Spangled Banner" filling all the air and jubilating the 
heart of ever}- patriot. 

He maintained this position until December, 1S63, when, 
having been elected a member of Congress for this District, 
he resigned his commission. His power and usefulness to 
his country in that and succeeding Congresses were of the 
highest conceivable character. I quote from one whose 
great ability, high patriotic, chivalric character, matchless 
eloquence as a speaker and writer has thrilled his country- 
men with lo\'e and admiration, and made the name of James 
G. Blaine the synonim of the highest t>pe of an American. 
In his history of twenty years in Congress he says " Robert 
C. Schenck was an invaluable addition to the House. He 
w^as at once ])laced at the head of the Committee on Mili- 
tary Affairs, then of superlative importance, and subse- 
quently made chairman of Ways and Means, succeeding 



25 



Mr. Stevens in the undoubted leadership of the House. 
He was admirably fitted for the arduous and difficult duty. 
His perceptions were keen, his analysis was extraordinarily 
rapid, his power of expression remarkable. On his feet, as 
the phrase went, he had no equal in the House. In the 
five minutes' discussion in committee of the whole, he was 
an intellectual marvel. The compactness and clearness of 
his statement, the facts and arguments which he could 
marshal in that brief time, were a constant surprise and 
delight to his hearers. No man in Congress during the 
present generation has rivalled his singular power in this 
respect. He was able in every form of discussion, but his 
peculiar gift was in leading and controlling the committee 
of the whole." 

His subsequent career as Minister to England was a 
marked one. His genial manners, great ability and true 
Americanism were recognized by all, and he became per- 
sonally one of the most popular ministers who had ever 
represented this country at that court. But he was not 
dazzled with royalty and allowed no friendly popularity to 
interfere with his duty to his country and none of her inter- 
est suffered in his hands, but in every complication kept 
her honor and welfare at heart as the leading object to be 
maintained. 

Returning to America he was met with great cordiality 
by men of all parties, and until the day of his death num- 
bered among the warmest of his friends, man}- of his viru- 
lent political opponents. He did not gain this b}- hypoc- 
risy or paltering in a double sense to any one. " He 
would not have flattered Neptune for his trident." No 
man was firmer in what he believed to be right, no matter 
what might be the opposition, and he never feared to de- 
clare his sentiment before friend or foe. And hence the 
honesty of his motive was never questioned ; while the real 
goodness and kindness of his heart warmed the entire at- 
mosphere in which he lived. 

His countrymen crowned him with great honors. No 



26 



one has ever been heard to say that he was unworthy of 
them, or proved recreant to any trust. 

And so, full of honors, with the crown of four score years 
upon him, he has passed from earth, and his remains by 
loving hands have been laid in yonder beautiful cemetery, 
ahnost overlooking the place of his birth, this city, the 
scene of his triumphs, the homes of his friends through all 
these long years, this beautiful Miami valley, the Eden of 
our new world, and over all, in, we trust an enduring 
peace, floats that flag whose sovereignty he ever sought to 
maintain as the protector of that Constitution wdiich he de- 
claifed "may undergo alteration, but the Nationality for 
which it was made, iiiitst be one and ctcnia/y 

" Witli the storied l)rave 

Our country nurtured in her Ljhny time 

Rest tliee — tliere is no ]irinider grave, 
Even in lier dwn proud clime ; 

For thou art Freedom's now, and Fames', 
One of llie few, tlie immortal names 
That were not born to die." 



FHY eOUNTRY! 'TIS 0P t^HEE:. 



Sung by the Philharmonic Society. 



I\Iy country! 'tis of thee 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing ; 
Land where my fathers died, 
Lantl of the pilgrims pride, 
From every mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 

My native country, thee — 
Land of the noble free — 

Thy name I love ; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and teni])led hills; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the Ijreeze, 
And ring from all the trees, 

Sweet freedom's song ; 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake, 
Let rocks their silence break, 

The sound prolong. 

Our father's (iod I to thee 
Author of lil)erty, 

To thee we sing ; 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light ; 
Protect us by thy might. 

Great God, our King ! 



GoL Bonn Piatt's Qddrcss. 



(iCJifUimii o/ tltr Car field Clitb a)id fclloii'-citi^-^ois: 

I hastened here, heart full, in response to your kind in- 
vitation, to assist in these memorial services in behalf of my 
General and life-long friend. I must confess, now that I 
am before you, that I feel embarrassed. It seems to me as 
if I were called upon to give in words the delicate odor of 
the violet, or render upon a poor instrument the sweet 
music of the grandest master. I am forced to remember 
that the very affection that stirs my heart and dims my 
eyes, mars my utterance. An excess of feeling destroys 
the just perspective, so necessary to a clear comprehension 
of either character or career. The cold, calm, impartial 
hand of historic record is our better friend. We can com- 
fort ourselves with the thought, that in the history of our 
country, in the darkest hour of its peril there is written the 
epitaph of Ro]:)ert Cumming vSchenck. He owes little to 
his friends, and sleeps in peace, without fear of his enemies. 
While placing immortelles on his new made grave, we can 
only say, in tear-laden words, that we loved him living, and 
lament him dead. 

There is another eml)arrassment, second only to the one 
given, that is found in the fact that I am addressing his per- 
sonal friends and neigh1)ors. My testimony to his rare ex- 
cellence must appear poor beside your memories that pre- 
sents his career as part and parcel of yourselves. Through 
the many years that it was my ])recious privilege to hold 
the friendsliip and share tlie confidence of \w\ General, he 
never appeared separate and a])art from his home, his beloved 
Dayton. In all his triumphs and in all his troubles he 



29 



would turn to his friends and the associates of his youth 
and age with a faith so childlike in its devotion that one 
learned that no time could decay, no event dim the sweet- 
ness of a being that had the underlying characteristics of 
his nature. At home in the political arena, where we were 
thrown so much together, in the turbid field of perilous 
campaigns, where we shared the same tent ; on the shores 
of Europe where we met, in all his moments given to rest 
he found relief in memories of you, my friends, not only as 
true hearted men, who stood by him in good and evil re- 
port, but in dwelling upon that sweet human gossip, that 
so cheers our life with a loving sense of home. His monu- 
ment is in your heart, and when those hearts have ceased 
to beat in life, the story I trust will be taken up in that en- 
during history of the people, found in bronze and marble, 
that will carry to the latest generation, the honored name 
of Robert Gumming Schenck, Dayton's great man. 

It is not necessary for me to dwell here upon his youth 
and early manhood. He was j-oung in years when he en- 
tered public life. It was at a period ever to be remembered 
as the golden era of our nation's life, when leaders of the 
people were not onl}- great, but good. About the names 
of Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Corwin and a host of others, 
there cluster, not only all that was brilliant in our nation's 
history, but all that was pure as well. We mourn the dead 
in the remains of our departed hero. Have we not some- 
thing more to mourn? As we gaze up from the grave 
where the form of our brave, brilliant, honest old hero 
moulders into dust are we not called upon to mourn some- 
thing sadder than his loss, that his loss makes so conspic- 
vious through contrast in the dark effacing finger of decay 
crumbling space all that made such lives as his possible. 
We are here, however, to mourn the dead and not the 
dying. 

My first acquaintance that soon ripened into affection of 
Robert C. Schenck is found in a far cr}- back to 1840. It 
was in that wild political campaign in which the Democ- 



30 



racy born of Jefferson, rendered illustrious by Jackson, went 
down in deafening shouts of laughter under Martin Van 
Buren. An ardent young Democrat, I stood amazed amid 
the ruins of my party, before log cabins, canoes, coons and 
a strange phantasmagoria of a mad midsummer's night 
dream. In that I came to know two men of antagonistic 
politics to mine whom I soon learned to love and admire, 
and one was Schenck and the other Corwin. Although 
warmly attached we remained politically apart until the war 
upon the Union made but one party at the north and that 
of men under the muskets held together in a way that noth- 
ing but death could disintegrate. 

When the Whig party first fell to pieces at the approach 
of the great question that neither political organizations 
could grasp or control, Robert C. Schenck, like Corwin, and 
many other eminent Whigs, found themselves at a loss. 
Where to go was a puzzling question. To join the Democ- 
racv was impossible. To make part of the new organiza- 
tion, composed mainly of Abolitionists, was equally out of 
the question. I remember when Fremont was nominated 
I urged ni}- friend vSchenck to join us in the endeavor to 
elect him president but he would have none of him. Had 
Justice John McLean been made our standard l)earer he 
might have thought better of it, but then we would have 
lost all the force of the revolution we contemplated in being 
respectable. True reform is never reputable. 

There is a popular superstition to the effect that men be- 
long to one party or other because they have certain opin- 
ions or principles, as they are called. The fact is, however, 
that men have certain opinions because they do belong 
to certain parties. In politics, as in aught else, the intellec- 
tual proces.ses have little to do with our actions. We are 
the victims of circumstances over which we have no con- 
trol, and are more moved by our feelings than our intellect. 
The course of my eminent friend, or that indeed of myself, 
illustrates this. Schenck was an ardent Whig. It seemed 
impossible for him to l)e aught else. If there was any crea- 



31 



tiire on earth he fovind more offensive than another it was an 
abolitionist, a fanatic, who, to destroy the guarantees of the 
constitution would unhesitatingly burn the constitution. 
He saw the northern wing of his beloved party joining the 
free soil party and he saw at the same time the southern 
wing disappear in a fanaticism more fatal to the govern- 
ment of the Fathers than the abolitionists. It was not until 
Lincoln was nominated that he gave in his adherence to 
the Republicans in whose fold he lived and died. 

Our friend and hero gained all that he achieved in life 
from his high intellectual qualities and his great force of 
character. He owed nothing to luck. He was not the sort 
of a man we are sometimes called on to wonder at, if not 
admire, whom a chance wave catches up, and in spite of 
bloody disasters, frightful blunders, and even criminal acts, 
is whirled up to the highest pinnacle of fame and fortune. 
We say the man is strangely fortunate, and he illustrates 
the French axiom that nothing is so successful as success. 
Gen. Schenck not only had none of this, but had, on the 
contrary, ever at his side, a malign influence that seemed 
to come just in time to rob him of his merited reward. I 
remember when we tendered our services to the National 
Republican Committee in the first L,incoln campaign. We 
were assigned to vSouthern Illinois, the land of L,ogan, 
called Egypt, from its intense darkness. It was a campaign 
of great labor, and not without peril. We had immense 
crowds at our meetings as we went from county to county, 
and these assemblages were composed of people called to- 
gether from idle curiosity and not by any sympathy with 
our political doctrines. There was a small body of settlers 
from New England at each county that rallied about us as a 
sort of police, and I remember vividly the able arguments, 
lightened by wit and humor, that seemed thrown away, but 
which was good seed in the troubled time that followed 
when John A. Logan came into line and won for himself 
an immortal name as a gallant soldier of the Union army. 

Our missionary labors ended at Springfield a few days 



32 



before the election, and at Springfield Robert C. Schenck, 
in the last effort of his canii)aign, made the ablest effort I 
ever heard in l)ehalf of our cause. Mr. I^incoln was prom- 
inent in the audience, and fairly entranced by the happ}' 
utterances that rising above party, plead for our country 
and the government of the fathers. At the end of the 
meeting Mr. Lincoln asked us to return in case we were 
successful, to vSpringfield. When these returns were counted 
and our triumph assured, we were telegraphed for and 
gladly responded to the summons. There was a wild jub- 
ilee of the enthusiastic Repuljlicans, in which my General 
took prominent part. When that ended and Schenck was 
about to leave, Mr. Lincoln begged him to remain and ac- 
company him to Chicago. The newly elected President 
W'as very earnest in this request, so much so that it was sig- 
nificant of more than the pleasure to be found in his .so- 
ciety. We understood this to mean that one of the ablest 
leaders of the lately formed party was looked upon as an 
adviser called on to assist in organizing the incoming ad- 
ministration. This significance deepened when the press 
took the scent and commented favorably on the selection. 
He accompanied the President-elect as part of his family to 
Chicago, when shortly a change appeared and the malign 
influence came in to blight what would have been an act of 
grave importance to our party and the people. Gen. 
Schenck felt the change and wdien permitted to leave for 
home without even an explanation he felt deeply wounded. 
Without any effort or move on his part, he had l)een placed 
in a false position before the country, and he, who never, 
in all his high career, had asked for office was humiliated 
as appearing to tlirust himself forward an indelicate office 
seeker. 

It is something more than speculation to dwell on what 
would have been the result liad Robert C. vSchenck l^een 
called to President Lincoln's first cabinet, especially to the 
war department. His especial abilities, high patriotism, 
firm inte":ritv and "reat talent lor detail would have given 



33 



a far diiferent meaning, force and effect to that arm of the 
government in the opening hour of our countr5^'s peril. 
That which came to us when Edwin M. Stanton was called 
to that all important department would have been ours 
from the beginning. 

The cruel hurt given Gen. vSchenck would have driven 
him from public life back to a profession in which he had 
the abilit}- to win both fame and fortune, but for the war 
that followed so soon after. There never lived a man pos- 
sessed of a more patriotic heart and the gun at Sumter had 
scarcely caught its echo in the northwest before he tendered 
his services to the government and was commissioned 
Brigadier General. He had all the higher qualities of the 
soldier. Quick to see he was as quick to act with that 
higher courage which gives confidence. The confidence to 
his men he felt in himself. 

Then again, the malign influence that shadowed his life 
interposed. The press of the country covered the appoint- 
ment with ridicule and abuse. It was .stj^led that of a 
"political general." Ignorant of war, as we had come to 
be, through generations of profound peace, we added to 
that ignorance by a condition of idiocy from which to this 
day we have not recovered. There was then, as there is 
yet, a superstition to the effect that a command of men in 
time of war called for instruction more than ability, and 
that such ability without instruction is of no avail. Apply 
this to any other profession and where are we? A 
school graduates a thousand doctors, and one doctor in the 
thousand is a success. Apph' this to the profession of the 
bar and the same result is given. But how utterly absurd 
it is when we know that war is not a science, not even an 
art, and therefore can not be taught at all. The greatest 
captains poor humanity have suffered from, have left us 
nothing that can be made available at a militar}- school. 
The axioms left us for guidance in the field are of as much 
use to the volunteer from civil life as to the graduate of a 
military academy. Our little school upon the Hudson is de- 



34 



voted exclusively to training privates and when one of them 
is commissioned to command, he enters vipon his duties in 
the field of war as much an ignorant, raw recruit as the 
young man who goes in from private life. In the cruel 
disaster — the shameful surprise at Shiloh, when so many 
thousands of our poor fellows were shot down ere they 
could fall into line, we are gravely told in Hay's Life of 
Lincoln, that the general in command was learning the art 
of war. 

Gen. Schenck was not permitted to enjoy such bloody in- 
struction. He was not permitted to demonstrate that such 
instruction was not needed. An event occurred shortly 
after he assumed command that nearly ended his career as 
a soldier. We look back at it now in utter amazement. 
While establishing Camp Upton on the Virginia side of the 
Potomac, in throwing out a picket, he followed the written 
instructions given him by General Irvin McDowell. The 
mistake made by my General w^as in not putting the regi- 
ment designated for the duty in command of a Colonel or a 
member of his staff. But full of anxiety to have the order 
carefully obeyed, he took command himself. It is one of 
the lessons not laid down in Halleck's Art of War, but gen- 
erally practiced to have a subordinate between the General 
and the work to be done upon whom to visit the responsi- 
bility if aught goes wrong. In a country that was known 
not to be held by the enemy. Gen. Schenck, in person, 
transported by rail a regiment. A stray Confederate officer 
in command of two pieces of artillcr>- that happened to be 
crossing the country, heard the approaching train, hastily 
trained his pieces to rake the track, and as the train rounded 
a turn, fired upon the crowded cars. Ten men were killed 
and a numl)er wounded. Gen. vSchenck acted with great 
presence of mind and high courage. He rallied his men 
and brought off his killed and wounded. 

It was early in the war and lives had not been cheapened 
to the extent necessary to allow a General to slaughter 
thousands while learning the art of war, and the howl of 



35 



wrath went up from press and people over the loss of ten 
men. Now the ridiculous blunder of a political General 
was simph^ appalling. A man of less nerve would have 
sunk under the abuse and thrown up his commission. We 
must know the facts to realize the situation. Our armies 
were made of volunteers who read the papers, and every 
day newsboys threaded the camp with their shrill cries and 
distributed journals filled with ridicule and lying abuse of 
the General. Their confidence in him was a vital necessity 
to his and their success and while riding down the lines he 
could read in their faces the fatal effects of the poison. On 
the other hand, at Washington, the cotton-breasted, epau- 
letted heroes of subsequent defeats, openly sneered at my 
General as the " Car Conductor in Commission." I vividly 
remember as if it were but yesterday, those days of gloom 
and nights of torture. Gen. Schenck was a proud, sensitive 
man, but he had that indomitable will which defied fate 
and clamping those iron jaws together he bided his time 
and so won his spurs at last. 

But, for this untoward event in the beginning of his 
career as a soldier. Gen. Schenck would have surged to the 
front and conquered renown as Logan, McClernan and 
other volunteers did. He was splendidly equipped for the 
service. He was a born leader of men. He was not only 
the bravest of the brave as I have said, but to a remarkable 
brain he had that subtle magnetism in his force of char- 
acter that won confidence and admiration. However, he 
never entirely recovered from that first blight. The West 
Pointers who sneered at the volunteers in the beginning 
grew jealous toward the end as our gallant fellows de- 
monstrated in fighting their way into command that brain 
was of some account even in war. 

The true story of the late war has never been told. If it 
ever is there will be some strange transformation. The 
history so far, if one may call it such, is made up of news- 
papers and political stump oratory. When the record is 
made up by the cold impartial hand of history, the popular 



36 



heroes of to-da}- will disappear as such, and two men will 
emerge from the obscurity of neglect to fill all the space of 
popular admiration ; the one George H. Thomas and the 
other Stonewall Jackson. The military careers of these 
great captains will bear the closest inspection and grow 
brighter as they stand. 

Now to show you how little real history we have I can 
startle you with the fact that our General Robert C. vSchenck 
was one of the only two men who ever defeated Stonewall. 
You thought you knew every event in our General's life 
and yet here is one that of itself merits a monument. In 
the beginning of the war the great Virginia fighter was 
defeated at Winchester, and in the latter part of June, 
1S62, Gen. Schenck was ordered from Cumberland, Mary- 
land, to McDowall to the relief of the gallant General 
Milroy who had penetrated with a small force that 
far in the enemy's country. Our General had but one 
brigade and the expedition was hazardous in the ex- 
treme. We had mountains to climb, and rivers to cross, 
without the remotest information as to what might be 
before or on either side of us. We arrived at McDowall 
the same night that Stonewall Jackson did, he being then 
engaged in his campaign of victories that so disconcerted 
McClellan before Richmond and startled our government at 
Washington. Jackson had twice the number of the force 
made up of Schenck's and Milroy's brigades. 

"We've got to get out of this," said Milroy. 

"Yes," responded vSchenck, "Rut to do that we first 
must fight." 

We soon learned that the enemy was fortifying a strong 
position on what is called Bull-pasture mountain. Against 
this Schenck and Milroy moved out. We found ourselves 
on a long slope of mountain with a long level summit that 
of itself made a defense without much artificial work. Vp 
the slope our gallant fellows marched firing as they went, 
and under a continuous discharge from the breast-work 
above ^until the ^mountain brow \yas reached and 1;he, Con- 



37 



federates driven from their position. That night "we 
folded our tents like Arabs and silently stole away." We 
were not molested or pursued. 

This was no great affair and had no great consequences. 
But its management and success demonstrated his military 
qualities, while he carried to the grave the great distinction 
of having out-marched, out-maneuvered, and out-fought the 
greatest fighter of the Confederate side. 

Why he was neglected by the government at Washington 
we can well comprehend. President Lincoln was carrying 
on two wars — one in his rear and the other at the front. 
For every battle in the field he had a corresponding conflict 
in the political arena, and the one was far more perilous 
than the other, for if he failed there, his vast armies would 
disappear and the government itself crumble into frag- 
ments. So when Fremont threw up his command it was 
Sigel, not Schenck that succeeded him. It was better to 
suffer from Sigel in the field, than endanger the German 
vote that was back of the gallant but inefficient General. 
The press was editing events, when not criticizing or pro- 
jecting campaigns, and had no time to correct some of its 
own errors or give re-hearings to false condemnations. 
Thus one of the most capable of officers fought on under 
imbeciles. But he fought on, how bravely and well the 
records of the war remain to tell us, until at the second 
Bull Run, while leading his brigade in the hottest of the 
fight, he was shot out of his saddle. Promoted for gallant 
service in the field he was given a department and a corps, 
from which he retired to enter Congress as your Rep- 
resentative. 

Vv^liat those services were in Congress I need not now 
repeat. They are too well known to you, and to the his- 
tory of our country. As Chairman of the Committee of 
Ways and Means he repeated as leader of the house what 
he had demonstrated long before, and that was that as an 
able, ready debater he had few equals and no superior. Cool, 
clear, logical and ready, he could so state a case as to make 



38 



the mere statement an argument, and in his ready wit so 
fence with his opponents as not only to disarm opposition, 
but make a debate of the dry est subject a fascinating dis- 
play. He had the rare combination found in a turn for 
detail and the higher qualities of the orator. It was, how- 
ever, the ready wit I have mentioned that flashed along 
the line of argvunent and lit up like lightning the most 
sombre subject that his opi)onents feared and won victory 
for him in advance. 

It was during the negotiations of the High Joint Com- 
mission, organized to settle the questions with England, 
that my General demonstrated his diplomatic ability and 
that led to his appointment of Minister to England. Then, 
again came in the malign element that seemed to have 
shadowed his honorable life. Among other properties in 
which he had invested his modest means, was some stock in 
what is known as the Emma Mine of Utah. He bought 
that stock as he purchased the house in which he died. He 
paid full value for it, and believing it to be sound and hon- 
est, he advised a few friends to invest. One day he was 
cautioned to "unload," as it was termed in Wall street, and 
learned from the promoters that Emma was not a mine, 
but a pocket, and would soon be exhausted. 

" I cannot do that," was the reply. " I have advised 
some near and dear friends to invest and if the Emma goes 
down I too must go down." 

That was the speech of a man who never had any financial 
transaction but what was open to the scrutiny of the world. 
but there are certain anglomaniac snobs of American growth 
hanging about the area ways and kitchens of the nobility 
to gather items from .servants to reha.sh for American 
journals, who seized on this and went to alnising a man 
whose shoes they were not worthy to tie. But the matter 
was .sensational and it swung through the press with almost 
the same volume as that of the \'ienna affair. 

Now I am not here to defend my General from any 
charge of this sort. His long life is in itself a complete de- 



39 



fense. He lived all the years of his honored career in the 
open at all times, and much under the fierce glare of public 
place. He occupied positions of trust in which he could 
have winked himself into millions. He went into office 
one of a crowd and he came out alone, the one poor man of 
the group. Plain and simple in his habits of life, he found 
his income sufficient for its wants. I parted with him some 
twelve years since, when he was thought to be dying of 
Bright's disease, and I was on my way to my home in 
Mac-o-chee to put ni}- house in order, for I too was very 
ill. It was a sad parting as we smiled through our eyes 
dimmed in unshed tears, for we never expected to meet 
again this side of our graves. That w^as a sorrowful inter- 
view, but a sadder one was our last, in which he told me 
that he had lost his little place as legal advisor to the vState 
Department, and had resumed the practice of the law. " I 
have one case," he said, "one in behalf of the Department 
clerks. There is not much money in it, but I hope, through 
it, to come into notice as a law3'er again." 

When I heard this from my brave old friend, then ap- 
proaching his eighty-first year, and remembered his long 
and eminent services, the situation seemed so pitiful that I 
had to turn away my head to hide my tears. Ah ! my friends 
it is not that republics are ungrateful, but that they are 
mean. The )wbiesse oblige of European aristocracy has no 
place with us. We cannot be generous, even with other 
people's nione}'. 

General Schenck was a man of the strictest integrit}', 
but it always seemed to me that it manifested itself more 
in his high sen.se of honor. He treated dishonor that 
approached him as an insult. I could never imagine any 
one making a dishonest proposition to him. He made no 
profession of high morality, and after all I rather think that 
the virtue is like one's stomach, when in good order we do 
not know^ that it is there. When the knowledge comes to 
us the organ is injured. 

General Schenck's most marked trait was in his intense 



40 



personality. It was strikingly American, not only in its 
high patriotism but his versatility. Born through many 
generations upon our soil, the strong blood of his race 
seemed to take in each birth some new quality from its 
environment. From this junction of qualities from 
mixed races comes the happy adaptability of the American 
character. It was vividh' illustrated in ni}- general. As a 
lawyer he would have stood at the head of his profession. 
He turned from this to lead as a politician with a power 
that approached statesmanship. As a soldier, a debater on 
the floor of the House, as a diplomate he shone unrivalled 
in some and unequaled in others. He grew old with grace 
and dignity, surrounded by his loved and loving daughters. 
He lived out the sum of his grand life; and when at last 
he folded his cloak about him to lie down to pleasant 
dreams, he could say with the poet Shell\- : 

" Heartless tilings 
Are (lone and said i' the world, and many worms, 
And beasts, and men li\e on, and mighty earth. 
From sea and mountain, city and wililerness, 
In vespers low, or joyous orison, 
Lifts still its solemn voice; but thou art gone, 
Thou canst no longer know, or love, the shapes 
Of this jihantasmal scene, who liave to thee 
Keen purest ministers, who are, alas! 
Now thou art not." 



RcsT, Spirit Rest. 



SuNc; BY Miss Margaret Cotter and the Philharmonic Society. 



Rest, spirit rest, 

Thou art fled to realms of endless day. 
Blest of heaven, 
By \varhling choirs of seraphs led, 

Soar spirit, soar away, 
Rest, spirit rest. 



f3ENEDieTI0N. 



Bv Rev. Morris i;. Wilson, I). I). 



And now, upon the proceedings of this hour; upon the 
generous words uttered ; upon the hearts which liave been 
stirred ; upon the sacred memories revived ; upon the con- 
victions which, we trust, have l)een strengthened ; may the 
smile of Heaven be bestowed, and may the blessing of 
Almighty God, grace, mercy and peace from Father, Son 
and Holy Spirit, come unto us all, go with us, and abide 
with us forevermore. Amen. 



Organized i S 8 4. 



M\]^ CiapfieU fl^k 



OF DAYTON, OHIO. 



OFFICERS, 1890. 



Presidciil, . . . 
Vice President, . 
Financial Sec'y, . 
Recording' Src'v, 
Treasurer, . . . 



Herbert A. Cranijall, 

Is". P. R.\MSEY, 

Fred. A. JTcss, 
Charles J. Hall, 
Charles D. Kidd, Jr. 



DIRECTORS. 
JOHN B. WOOD, D. \V. ALLAXLA.V, 

EDWIN C. BAIKD, W. S. HAWTHORN, 

GEO. W. D.4VIDSON, B. K. HERSHEY, 

JOHN C. CLINE, JOHN JOHNSON, 

LEWIS J. JVDSON. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 700 080 5 



